How to Keep Bugs Out of Blueberry Bushes

Remove all dead or wounded limbs from the blueberry bush using your pruners as soon as the dormant season begins. This will potentially remove any overwintering insects that are living in the wood as well as diseases they may have transferred to the plant over the last year.

Apply horticultural oil late in the dormant season as temperatures begin to rise, shortly before new buds begin to appear. Horticultural oil is usually sold as a concentrate to be mixed with water and sprayed. Be sure to cover all limbs and foliage thoroughly. This will help to kill off any insects that still remain, as well as deter new pests from your blueberry bush.

Apply a second coat of horticultural oil early in the growing season if pests are beginning to appear. Be sure leaves are completely coated on the top and bottom if oil is applied. Do not apply oil once flowers have begun to appear, as this will deter the honeybees that pollinate your blueberry bushes.

Apply a third coat of horticultural oil as soon as bees stop appearing regularly around your blueberry bush. Depending on how well the blueberry has been cared for, at this point preventative measures may not be enough and more powerful pesticides may be necessary for insect removal.

Hang yellow sticky traps near your blueberry bushes in mid-summer shortly before harvest time. This will control blueberry maggot populations, which are the single most destructive insects to blueberry fruit yields. Be sure to lay traps early, when adult flies first appear to lay eggs. This will not stop a large population of blueberry maggots, but if the problem is small future infestation will be prevented.

Remove and burn rotten blueberries, fallen leaf litter, and dead branches from the bush and surrounding ground area after harvest to ensure new insect populations are controlled for the following season.